Sarsa Dengel campaigns twice in Ennarea, in southwest Ethiopia, the first time in 1586, and the second time in 1597.

On the final campaign against the Oromo, his Chronicle records, a group of monks tried to dissuade him from this expedition; failing that, they warned him not to eat fish from a certain river he would pass.

Despite their warning, when he passed by the river the monks warned him about, he ate fish taken from this river and grew sick and died.

Sarsa Dengel had intended to make his nephew Za Dengel his successor, but under the influence of his wife Maryam Sena and a number of his sons-in-law, he instead chose his son Yaqob, who is seven when he comes to the throne, with Ras Antenatewos of Begemder as his regent.

Za Dengel and the other rival for the throne—Susenyos, the son of Abeto Fasilides—are exiled, but Za Dengel escapes to the mountains around Lake Tana, while Susenyos finds refuge in the south among the Oromo.